Russia
Russia ( ), or the Russian Federation ( ), is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. At , Russia is by a considerable margin the largest country in the world by area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with about 146.79 million people , including Crimea. About 77% of the population live in the western, European part of the country. Russia's capital, Moscow, is one of the largest cities in the world and the second largest city in Europe; other major cities include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both with Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait. However, Russia recognises two more countries that border it, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which are internationally recognized as parts of Georgia. The East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the Rus' lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion and became tributaries of the nomadic Golden Horde in the 13th century. The Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually reunified the surrounding Russian principalities and achieved independence from the Golden Horde. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland on the west to Alaska on the east. Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the world's first constitutionally socialist state. The Soviet Union played a decisive role in the Allied victory in World War II (under Joseph Stalin), and emerged as a recognized superpower and rival to the United States during the Cold War. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the world's second largest economy, largest standing military in the world and the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, twelve independent republics emerged from the USSR: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Baltic states regained independence: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania; the Russian SFSR reconstituted itself as the Russian Federation and is recognized as the continuing legal personality and a successor of the Soviet Union, which is part of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. The president then became Vladimir Putin. Russia's economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2018. Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the leading producers of oil and natural gas globally. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and an active global partner of ASEAN, as well as a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the G20, the Council of Europe, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as being the leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and one of the five members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), along with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The western part of Russia consists of Moscow and St Petersburg. Gavin Goh had went to these areas in 2010, together with the northern part of Russia. List of oblasts in Russia #Amur #Arkhangelsk #Astrakhan #Belgorod #Bryansk #Chelyabinsk #Irkutsk #Ivanovo #Kaliningrad #Kaluga #Kemerovo #Kirov #Kostroma #Kurgan #Kursk #Leningrad #Lipetsk #Magadan #Moscow #Murmansk #Nizhny Novgorod #Novgorod #Novosibirsk #Omsk #Orenburg #Oryol #Penza #Pskov #Rostov #Ryazan #Sakhalin #Samara #Saratov #Smolensk #Sverdlovsk #Tambov #Tomsk #Tver #Tula #Tyumen #Ulyanovsk #Vladimir #Volgograd #Vologda #Voronezh #Yaroslavl Railways The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR, Russian: Транссибирская магистраль, tr. Transsibirskaya magistral', IPA: məgʲɪˈstralʲ) is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East. With a length of 9,289 kilometres (5,772 miles), from Moscow to Vladivostok, it is the longest railway line in the world. There are connecting branch lines into Mongolia, China and North Korea. It has connected Moscow with Vladivostok since 1916, and is still being expanded. It was built between 1891 and 1916 under the supervision of Russian government ministers personally appointed by Tsar Alexander III and his son, the Tsarevich Nicholas (later Tsar Nicholas II). Even before it had been completed, it attracted travellers who wrote of their adventures. The most renowned railway in Russia, it spans a record of seven time zones and serving the longest single continuous services in the world, Moscow-Vladivostok (9,259km), Moscow-Pyongyang (10,267km) and Kyiv-Vladivostok (11,085km). Railway Stations in Moscow *Belorussky - Belarus, Poland, Russia, Germany, France, Czech Republic *Kazansky - Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan & Tajikistan *Kiyevsky - Russia, Ukraine & Moldova *Kursky - Russia, Ukraine *Leningradsky - Russia, Finland & Estonia *Paveletsky - Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijian *Rizhsky - Latvia & Russia *Savyolovsky - Electric Trains *Yaroslavsky - Eastern Russia & China (including Pyongyang, North Korea) Transaero Transaero ( ), officially OJSC Transaero Airlines ( ) was a Russian airline. It operated scheduled and charter flights to over 150 domestic and international destinations. Its main hubs were Moscow-Vnukovo Airport and Saint Petersburg Airport with further bases throughout Russia. For much of its history the head office was at Domodedovo International Airport, and towards the end its head office was in Saint Petersburg. Transaero filed for bankruptcy on 1 October 2015, and announced that it would cease all operations by 15 December 2015. However, Russian authorities revoked its operating license on 25 October 2015. Highways *M-1 "Belarus": Moscow - Smolensk to the border with Belarus (on to Minsk, Brest, Warsaw) *M-2 "Crimea": Moscow to the border with Ukraine (on to Kharkov, Zaporozhye, Simferopol, Sevastopol) *M-3 "Ukraine": Moscow - Kaluga - Bryansk - Sevsk to the border with Ukraine (on to Kiev) *M-4 "Don": Moscow - Bogoroditsk - Yefremov - Yelets - Zadonsk - Rostov-on-Don - Krasnodar - Novorossiysk. An only fully nationwide expressway as of June 2013. *M-6 "Caspian": Moscow - Tambov - Volgograd - Astrakhan; redesignated as P22 *M-7 "Volga": Moscow - Vladimir - Nizhny Novgorod - Kazan - Ufa *M-8 "Cholomgory": Moscow - Yaroslavl - Vologda - Arkangelsk, Entrance to the city of Kostroma *M-9 "Baltia": Moscow - Volokolamsk to the border with Latvia *M-10 "Russia": Moscow - Tver’ - Velikiy Novgorod - Saint Petersburg, entrance to the cities of Tver' and Novgorod *M-10/A-181 "Scandinavia": Saint Petersburg to the border with Finland; also designated A181 *M-11: Moscow – Saint Petersburg, a motorway under construction *M-18 "Kola": Saint Petersburg - Petrozavodsk - Murmansk - Pechenga to the border with Norway; redesignated as P21 *M-29 "Kavkaz": Krasnodar - Chechnya - Dagestan to the border with Azerbaijan (on to Baku); redesignated as P217 *M-52 "Chuysky Trakt": Novosibirsk to the border with Mongolia; redesignated as P256 *M-56: Yakutsk - Skovorodino to route M58 "Amur"; redesignated as A360 *M-56: Magadan - Yakutsk; redesignated as P504 *M-58 "Amur": Chita - Khabarovsk; redesignated as P297 *M-60 "Ussuri": Khabarovsk - Vladivostok; redesignated as A370 *A-119 "Vyatka": Cheboksary - Syktyvkar, entrance of the city of Kirov; redesignated as P176 Russia has speed limits from 60km/h all the way to 130km/h for the expressways.